Why couldn't Cole Anthony become Magic's long term solution at Starting PG?

[Bergmaniac]

The only player who benefits from Cole's playing style is Cole.

This is empirically not true.

Maybe we need to go back and watch him be the starting point guard last year and the beginning of this year before he was hurt. Cole does not set people up, he gives them the ball with 3 seconds left on the shot clock.

This isn't true at all. He is not a great playmaker by any means, but to say he "does not set people up" and only gives up the ball when the shot clock is down is absurd. If he was that incompetent as a PG, our bench wouldn't be so good against other teams' benches when he plays. PG is the deepest position in the league by some margin.

Last season the team was blatantly tanking and was in an injury crisis almost all year. This year he started only 4 games early on, when we had plenty of players missing again. I don't think this proves he can never be a solid starting PG.

And it's not like his competition for the starting role is prime Chris Paul. None of our PG are all that good at setting people up and all of them have significant flaws to their game. Fultz is a scorer first too. He can make fancy passes once in a whole, his drive and kick game is good and he is quite good in transition, but in the halfcourt he is pretty mediocre and he is downright terrible at running a pick and roll.

Right now all of out PGs are best suited for a bench role, but I don't think making Cole a starter would lead to worse results and could be an improvement.

[zaymon]

This is empirically not true.

Maybe we need to go back and watch him be the starting point guard last year and the beginning of this year before he was hurt. Cole does not set people up, he gives them the ball with 3 seconds left on the shot clock.

This isn't true at all. He is not a great playmaker by any means, but to say he "does not set people up" and only gives up the ball when the shot clock is down is absurd. If he was that incompetent as a PG, our bench wouldn't be so good against other teams' benches when he plays. PG is the deepest position in the league by some margin.

Last season the team was blatantly tanking and was in an injury crisis almost all year. This year he started only 4 games early on, when we had plenty of players missing again. I don't think this proves he can never be a solid starting PG.

And it's not like his competition for the starting role is prime Chris Paul. None of our PG are all that good at setting people up and all of them have significant flaws to their game. Fultz is a scorer first too. He can make fancy passes once in a whole, his drive and kick game is good and he is quite good in transition, but in the halfcourt he is pretty mediocre and he is downright terrible at running a pick and roll.

Right now all of out PGs are best suited for a bench role, but I don't think making Cole a starter would lead to worse results and could be an improvement.

Anthony is more of a scorer than playmaker but still he is A LOT better passer than Fultz. Better in p&r better, off handoffs, better assist/turnover ratio. Markelle is athletic, showman, but his true skill level is suprisingly low.

[Residual-Heat]

IMO If he was a more consistent shooter and could get that 3pt% closer to 40%, he would be be a starter. I feel like he has made improvements this season as a playmaker and overall defense.

[The Effect]

wow

Last year no one here could stand cole even being on the team, now people want him back as the starter?

[MoMM]

Cole is perfect for 6th man, just like J-Crawford, Barbosa or Lou Williams.

I am OK with having Fultz starting long-term, but we need an elite SG to make it work.

[SOUL]

Cole has a specific role and does it pretty well off the bench. I do not trust him as a lead guard at all.

If we had someone like Giannis or, idk, Jokic or Embiid spearheading us then you can throw him in the starting lineup and it would be fine, but until Paolo/Franz take the next step, you really need someone who is steady. Fultz isn't perfect in that regard and has his warts elsewhere, but I trust him more than Cole.

[p0peye]

We're beating a dead horse here. Cole is in a role perfectly suited for him and our starting backcourt is not on the team roster yet. All eyes should be on FO to bring those players through draft, trades or FA as soon as possible.

[KillMonger]

My problem as far as this is concerned is the playmaking.....i can live with a lead guard not being a lock down defender but you got to at least be able to run the show. I'm not confident that Cole can do that for large stretches.... And I might be wrong but cole as he is now seems much more of a cheerleader rather than A leader as harsh as that might sound.

For me if he was a much better playmaker then this conversation would be a lot more interesting.

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[yoyojw17]

Maybe we need to go back and watch him be the starting point guard last year and the beginning of this year before he was hurt. Cole does not set people up, he gives them the ball with 3 seconds left on the shot clock.

This isn't true at all. He is not a great playmaker by any means, but to say he "does not set people up" and only gives up the ball when the shot clock is down is absurd. If he was that incompetent as a PG, our bench wouldn't be so good against other teams' benches when he plays. PG is the deepest position in the league by some margin.

Last season the team was blatantly tanking and was in an injury crisis almost all year. This year he started only 4 games early on, when we had plenty of players missing again. I don't think this proves he can never be a solid starting PG.

And it's not like his competition for the starting role is prime Chris Paul. None of our PG are all that good at setting people up and all of them have significant flaws to their game. Fultz is a scorer first too. He can make fancy passes once in a whole, his drive and kick game is good and he is quite good in transition, but in the halfcourt he is pretty mediocre and he is downright terrible at running a pick and roll.

Right now all of out PGs are best suited for a bench role, but I don't think making Cole a starter would lead to worse results and could be an improvement.

Anthony is more of a scorer than playmaker but still he is A LOT better passer than Fultz. Better in p&r better, off handoffs, better assist/turnover ratio. Markelle is athletic, showman, but his true skill level is suprisingly low.

wow... i feel like i might be watching a different game... or interpret it differently. :-/

When I look at our team... i think our best facilitator as of now is Fultz. This is where i think missing training camp really hurt him. The style of play that Fultz has is very loose and on the fly... making him unpredictable as he maintains his dribble and gets into the teeth of the defense... and simply the other players just need to make themselves available for dump-offs, cuts, and take the open shots. People look at his assist numbers and make it seem like they are subpar.... but we also have to realize that he also plays with two players that are also facilitators and ball handlers in their own rights. So 5.7 asst in that situation is not really that bad. If you watched when we were fielding a depleted team last year and our bench was a bunch of "who are you?"... our bench was fast pace and players who were aight were looking good as he got them open looks on simple plays.... they just had to make the effort to take advantage. and in that case, he averages 5.5 asst in 20 min. If we ever draft that winning "star pg"... I would have no problem holding onto fultz as the next man up for that reason alone.

[Bensational]

Cole is in the perfect spot for his abilities at this point in his career. Maybe in a few seasons he’ll have matured his game on a team that is serious about winning over individual accolades and then he might be ready to take on a starting role.

[fateis007]

Cole has been much better this year in this sparkplug role.

Scoring wise, he is turning into exactly like Chris paul (both pretty small guys at their positions) with his midrange/floater game (it's turning automatic when he gets open in the lane) and ability to knockdown shots. It's super nice.

Sadly he doesn't have anything else CP has, like his defensive instincts, his game management, his ability to create for others, draw fouls.

[basketballRob]

Cole has been much better this year in this sparkplug role.

Scoring wise, he is turning into exactly like Chris paul (both pretty small guys at their positions) with his midrange/floater game (it's turning automatic when he gets open in the lane) and ability to knockdown shots. It's super nice.

Sadly he doesn't have anything else CP has, like his defensive instincts, his game management, his ability to create for others, draw fouls.

He could have a Kemba Walker type career.

https://stathead.com/tiny/85vR5

[MasterGMer]

If there is lesson to be learned after we played Bucks or Lakers, there needs to be shooting for us to be successful.

Cole is averaging 16 ppg and shooting over 40% from 3s.

[drsd]

The Knicks game proves to me how excellent Anthony is as a bench player. I think he really relishes the role of "savior".

It's not who starts that matters, it's who finishes.